A new exhibition entitled Sky’s the Limit: The Engineering of Architecture explores Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)’s massive structural engineering portfolio. Exhibited at the Utzon Center in Aalborg, Denmark, the multimedia show takes guests through the process of building many of the world’s tallest buildings.
Twenty-six handmade structural models at 1:500 scale are the centerpiece of the show. In another space, 3D glasses are provided to help understand animated illustrations of complex structural components that are projected at 1:2 scale on the gallery’s walls. An immersive narrated video installation surrounds guests with views of SOM’s tower projects while giving insights in the practice’s history. More models, research material, and drawings, give an inside look into how the firm works through multiple building typologies with several design techniques.
Sky’s the Limit is the second time SOM has exhibited the work of its structural engineers. This new show is over four times the size of the last show and includes many never-before-seen videos, photographs, drawings, and models. The former exhibit, The Engineering of Architecture, was first shown at Architekturgalerie Munich, in Munich, Germany.
The Utzon Center was the last building designed by famed Danish architect Jørn Utzon. The center was imagined less as a museum and more as a place where architecture students could gather. The project was a collaboration between Utzon and his son Kim, who would eventually finish the drawings for the project after Utzon’s death. Finished in 2008, the center sits on the Limfjord waterfront in Utzon’s childhood home of Aalborg, a northern Danish harbor city. The center currently functions as an exhibition space and studio space for architecture students, as was intended by the architect.
Sky’s the Limit: The Engineering of Architecture will be on show through January 15th, 2017.
